How Does Art Reflect Culture?

Part One:
This week, I was lucky to get the experience of a walk through online visit of the Lascaux Caves in France. Within the cave, there were multiple images of different animals and a few images of people. Through the images, the artists of these images were trying to reveal their culture. Often times, culture is explained to another person using words and stories told out loud. However, in this case, the artist used a different method of explaining their culture. Using the animal images, this shows that their culture depended heavily on animals; whether they were used for food or for sacrifices. The artists also "said" that they are a hunter gatherer culture that relied mainly on hunting of animals. Also, within the cave, at the very very end of it, there were the animals that were shown to be carnivores. Because the carnivores did not want to be known to be carnivores, they did not make it public. Artists explained their desire to stay on the down low by placing the images of the carnivores at the end of the cave, where it was not the first think people walked into.

I think there were so many animals in order to show which animals were gathered, useful, and which ones were sacrificed. Since there were so many animals, I think it was a way of emphasizing the importance the animals had on their culture and how it was part of their daily life. I think there were not as many people in the paintings in order to avoid misjudgment. It could be because artists did not want to portray humans in the wrong way or for people to think a specific way about the people through their paintings. Also, I think it could be the artists way of not lowering down the humans value to the animals value. This is to show that humans were not hunted and were not used as food and were not used as sacrifices as the animals were.

The paintings tells us that people spent a lot of time in the caves and around animals. Dwelling in the caves shows that their live style was simple and they were each others only company. Because they did not have money or cars or technology as we do now, their lives were simple and the families were very close together as they did not have any other distractions. However, through the cave, it shows that humans had some difficulties in painting the pictures. First, there was very little source of light which is a very limiting thing. They had to create their own tools in order to get some light since they did not have lamps. Another difficulties was the 3-Dimensional aspect of the paintings. These humans did not have all the tools that enabled them to portray the animals in 3D. Therefore, they had to do their best in painting realist pictures.

This art has many functions. One function is simply taking the role of storytelling. Instead of explaining the culture verbally and through stories by mouth, pictures do the job of telling their stories. Another function is to bring people together. This is done by this art by having a place for people to go to together and see their own life style and realize their accomplishments. Finally, it is used to show their strength and struggles as hunters and cave dwellers. Nothing shows more who people are and how they live than pictures do, and these paintings do just that.

Part Two:
The early forms of art are extremely different than the modern art we have today. Part of the early art includes dances and music specific to each culture that tells their stories and their strengths. Most early forms of art, whether it is paintings or music revealed their culture as strong and able, never really showing their weaknesses. Still, they do show their struggles but they show them followed by conquering these struggles. They also show their simple lives and their strength against their enemies.
Today's modern art is very different. Music is not intended to show weakness or strengths but it is used to show power and money. I am not attempting to use my bias but many songs nowadays include money, sex, alcohol, etc. This is not how it was in the old days. The media today shows that modern life is not as simple as it was back then, but rather emphasizes fame. Even modern paintings are very provocative and are often times used to get money.
That is not to say that all modern art is to be portrayed in such a negative way. Some paintings, like the early form of art, tell stories that the artist does not want to say out loud. Stories include struggles, stories of love and loss, and stories of success. Some forms of music in the modern art could also be used as a way to show a part of the modern cultures, just like how the music of the early times tell the stories of their cultures.

Part Three:
The form of art I chose to explore is the traditional Arabic dance called "El Dabke". This dance is practiced among all Arabic cultures. It is one of the traditional Arabic dance that was introduced in the countries of the Middle East. One of the functions of this dance is to gather up all of the members of that culture in one dance where everyone needs the help of the other person next to them. This shows that in the Arabic culture, unity within family and close relatives is extremely important. This dance unites everyone at the parties or gathering to dance together. You never see one person dancing this dance alone. There has to be at least five or more people in order to dance. This dance requires special songs, most of which are traditional songs with the specific beat that the dancing goes along with. Also, within this dance, there is the leader of the steps and everyone follows. Usually, the leader knows the dance the best. This emphasizes that people within this culture are expected to follow the correct steps and if they were to go out of these steps, it would literally mess up the whole dance, causing chaos.
The traditional parties in this culture where the Dabke took place involved everyone wearing similar clothing. It was the traditional clothing called the "Abayeh" which covered the person completely. This clothing is an important part of this dance that up to this day, whenever people dance the Dabke, there is at least one person who wears the "Abayeh" to show the origin of the dance.
This dance does not have direct effects on society. However, it does bring people together and in today's parties, other people from other cultures are always encouraged to join with the dancing. It brings unity to the party and causes less judgement between people. It is not a very difficult dance to learn and as long as you are able to follow the steps of the person next to you, it is a very enjoyable dance!
Here's a link to a video of one of the Dabke dances in Lebanon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTM2k3u_LfA&feature=related

This picture shows the dance and shows the traditional clothing, the "Abayeh".